HOT COFFEE, HOT TEA, HOT ANYTHING!

“It’s that time of year when some people will say “It’s too hot for coffee”. These people do not understand coffee they are not to be trusted.”

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Michigan summers seem to have gotten hotter and hotter compared to when I was a kid. Or maybe I was more acclimated to it back then. Now that I’m older, I burn effortlessly! I’m a redhead, so tanning isn’t a luxury I have. Instead, I cake on sunscreen and hope for the best! It is hard for countless people to cool off during these hot summers unless you are from Florida and love the heat!

While chitchatting with my mom, she mentioned hearing how drinking hot coffee can cool you off. So I decided to go and explore some research about this. My mom is a mail carrier, so she rarely receives breaks even when the temperature is over 100 degrees, humid, raining, snowing, or storming. Mail carriers are always out and about in their trucks with no ac. Thus, she must discover new ways to cool off. These microfiber towels on Amazon work to cool down your body, but can you imagine going around in this weather without ac? These towels may cool you down for a short timeframe, but it isn’t the main answer to this problem. Also, they are down multiple carriers due to retirees, hurt people, and nobody willing to work. So they are being mandated to work. They don’t get to have their days off. My mom will go in around 7:30 am and sometimes works until 7 or 8 pm. How is that even okay? 

That brings me back to drinking hot coffee. Peter McNaughton, a neuroscientist, explained that when you drink hot beverages, your tongue sends signals to your brain that tells the body to sweat from responders on our tongues. And sweat is what helps you cool off. “The hot drink somehow has an effect on your systemic cooling mechanisms, which exceeds its actual effect in terms of heating your body,” says McNaughton. So instead of just drinking water, pick up a glass of hot coffee to get your sweat going!